cleanness, inordinate affections, evil concupiscence, and covetousness: and, in v. 8. he bids them again, put ye off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, and lying. Strange it is, that believers of so eminent a rank should need calling upon to mortify such gross and foul sins as these; and yet it is no more than necessary: the best Christians on earth have a stock of corruption in them, which doth habitually dispose them unto these sins, as great and heinous as they are; and the Devil will so suit his temptations, as will certainly draw forth this corruption into act, unless they keep a strict hand and a strict watch over themselves in the constant exercise of mortification. And, therefore, as we urge it upon wicked men, that they slight not sin because it is small, and say, Is it not a little one, and my soul shall live? so we must press it upon the best and greatest of saints, that they would not slight any sin because it is great and heinous; and say with themselves, " Is it not a great one, and soul shall never commit it?" As we presume upon the my pardoning mercy of God in the commission of small sins, so we are apt to presume upon our own strength to preserve us from the commission of great and crying sins; and so, by their security and carelessness, the best do sometimes find themselves surprised by them. If we should be earnest in exhorting you to beware that you murder not, that you blaspheme not, that you turn not apostates from the profession of your religion; would you not reply with Hazael, Are we dogs, that we should do this great wickedness? Yes, certainly, this great wickedness you would do, yea there is no abomination so abominable which you would not do, if you do not bring the cross of Christ into your hearts by a daily mortification.

I. But, before I can proceed farther, I must lay down this for a GENERAL PRINCIPLE, That all Mortification is the weakening of sin, in respect of some strength and power, that it formerly had over the soul.

There is, especially, a Threefold power observable in Sin. Its Damning and Condemnatory power, whereby it makes the soul liable to wrath.

Its Ruling and Reigning power, whereby it keeps the soul under a wretched slavery and vassalage.

Its Indwelling and Captivating power, whereby, through its continual assaults, it oftentimes breaks in upon a Christian, beats him from his defence, batters his spiritual armour, routs his graces, wastes his conscience, and at last leads him into a woeful, and it may be a long captivity.

According to this Threefold Power, so we must likewise distinguish of a Threefold Mortification of Sin.

i. There is a mortification of sin, as to its CONDEMNING power. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus: Rom. viii. 1. Sin, though it may still hale us before God, and make our consciences confess guilty; yet cannot now cast and sentence us, if we believe: it is still strong enough to drag us before God, to accuse us to God, to affright and terrify conscience; but it is not strong enough to drag us into hell, to adjudge us to everlasting wrath: it hath lost its power in that respect, and is become weak and mortified. Whence is it, that sin hath its condemning power, but from the Law? The strength of sin is the Law: 1 Cor. xv. 56: had not the Law threatened condemnation to the transgressor, sin could have had no strength at all to condemn him. But is this sentence of the Law still in force against believers? no, says the Apostle, we are delivered from the Law, that being dead wherein we were held: Rom. vii. 6. and, if the Law's power to condemn believers be dead, sin's power to condemn them, which was but only borrowed from the Law, must certainly be dead also. But how came the Law thus mortified? the Apostle tells us in Col. ii. 14. that Christ took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross and no wonder, then, if it be dead: that is, the cross and the sufferings of Jesus Christ have so fully satisfied for those who believe, that the Law is as it were now dead, and hath no strength nor power left to condemn them. But this is not that mortification of which I intend to speak, and to which my text exhorts us therefore,

ii. There is a mortification of sin, in respect of its REIGNING power.

What saith the Apostle, Rom. vi. 11, 12? in v. 11. saith he, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin; what then? why upon this he founds an exhortation in ver. 12. Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies. Now this reign of sin consists

not in the multitude, greatness, or prevalency of sins; for all these are consistent with a state of grace, and may be in a child of God, in whom sin doth not nor cannot reign: but in the inbeing of sin without grace, whether it acts more or less violently, yea whether it acts at all or no; yet, if the habit of sin possess the soul without any principle of grace implanted which is contrary to it, that man may be said to be still under the dominion of sin. This mortification, then, of sin as to its reigning power, is completed in the first act of conversion and regeneration; for, in that very instant that any is born again, he hath a principle of spiritual life put into him: the habit of supernatural grace, which lusteth against the flesh, weakens the whole body of sin, and crosses and contradicts every corrupt motion; so that, though he cannot do what he would, yet he would not do what he doth and this breaks the tyranny of sin, and mortifies it as to its reigning power.

iii. There is a mortification of sin, in regard of its CAPTIVATING and INDWELLING power.

And this is that, which the text chiefly aims at.

Corruption, wheresoever it is, doth not use to lie dormant ; but, where it cannot reign, there it will molest: stir, and struggle, and fight it will; and, it may be, prevail to a victory, even over those, over whom it shall never prevail unto condemnation. This calls for a constant work of mortification: every day and hour there are corrupt propensions to be reined in, sinful thoughts to be struggled against, sinful motions to be suppressed; and it is not the mere habit and principle of grace, without a vigorous and continued exercise of it in a way of mortification: that, indeed, gave sin its death's wound in our regeneration; but still we must follow it, doubling stroke upon stroke, while it hath any life and motion in it. We do not content ourselves that we crush the head of a serpent: no; but, while it stirs and writhes itself, we still lay on. So should we do with lust: it is not enough that the head of it is crushed, that its first wound in our conversion is incurable; but still, so long as it stirs and moves within us, we must be continually striking at it by continued acts of mortification: nor must all suffice, till death comes in to our part, and by one blow destroys it.

In these Three senses, sin may be said to be mortified. In its Condemning Power: and, so, it was at once mortified for

all the elect, by Christ hanging on the cross: and this mortification is particularly applied to them, when they believe. In its Reigning Power: and, so, it is mortified in the first moment of regeneration, by the implantation of an active principle of grace and holiness, which dissolves its government, and frees the soul from its dominion. And, lastly, in its Captivating Power, as it rebels and makes an insurrection against the sovereignty of grace: and, so, it is mortified by weakening its forces, hindering its inroads, resisting its assaults, beating down its first risings and motions; and all this, by constant, careful, and sincere endeavours, even all our days.

II. I might now easily demonstrate, in several particulars, HOW ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY IT IS, EVEN FOR THE BEST AND HIGHEST CHRISTIANS, TO KEEP UP THE CONSTANT EXERCISE OF MORTIFICATION.

Take only some few.

i. IN AN UNMORTIFIED COURSE, YOU FRUSTRATE THE VERY END

OF YOUR GRACES.

Hath God implanted in you a noble, active, and divine principle, that will certainly in the end prove victorious if it be employed? and will you, while lusts and temptations are overrunning your souls, and making a prey of you, will you, I say, check it, and keep it under a restraint? Grace hath in it a natural antipathy and repugnancy against sin; and would, where it hath its free scope, naturally and necessarily destroy it. Gal. v. 17. the Apostle tells us the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. And, what! doth the Spirit sit down tame and quiet under such an affront and opposition? no, saith he, the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh it doth no sooner see a corruption begin to heave and stir in the heart, but it would be presently upon it: it would beat it down and keep it under, did not your deceitful hearts betray it, or did they but concur with it.

Now consider,

1. Is not this a foul piece of ingratitude and disingenuity against God, the God of all Grace?

He, seeing thy weakness and impotency to deal with those mighty corruptions, that storm, rage, and domineer within thee, hath sent the auxiliaries and succours of his divine grace to aid thee: and thou either turnest treacherous, and deliverest them up bound to be abused, yea if possible to be slaugh

tered by thy lusts; or, else, cowardly desertest them in the combat. How canst thou answer it to God, that thou goest the way not only to betray thine own soul to ruin, but his grace; that grace, which doth so naturally oppose, and would in the end infallibly subdue all the corruptions thou strugglest with?

2. Is it not desperate Madness and Folly, to neglect or hinder that, which would side with thee, and fight for thee?

Alas! the quarrel is not grace's, but thine: and it is no less than thine eternal salvation or thine eternal damnation, about which this war is commenced. When corruption comes up against thee in a full body, and the Devil in the head of it leading it on, dost thou think thou canst of thyself stand against these many legions? and, yet, shall grace stand by and proffer thee a sure aid, and thou refuse or neglect it? what else is this, but to make void the use and office of grace, and to be injurious to the goodness of God; who hath therefore given thee grace to this very end, that thou shouldst employ it against thy lusts? That is the First thing.

ii. Unmortified sin doth not only frustrate the end and use of grace; but, what is worse, it doth also MISERABLY WEAKEN AND

WASTE GRACE.

It is impossible, that both grace and corruption should, at ònce, be strong and vigorous, in the same soul. If the one thrive, the other must needs languish: if corruption prosper and be well-liking, grace must needs pine away into a consump tion. They are like plants growing together in the same soil, that have a mutual antipathy: they cannot both flourish at the same time. If a garden be overrun with weeds, they choak up and starve the profitable herbs, that they cannot live there; and and why is it, but because they draw away the sap and moisture that should feed them? so is it with grace and sin in the soul: if thy soul be overspread with unmortified sins, like so many stinking and hurtful weeds sprouting up in it, grace must needs decay and wither, for it cannot have its sap to nourish it.

There are Two things, that do as it were nourish grace unto a mighty increase, both of strength and beauty and they are Holy Thoughts, and Holy Duties. A man ordinarily needs nothing more to strengthen him but food and exercise: holy thoughts are, as it were, the food of grace; that provision, which we are always to lay in to sustain it in life: and holy duties are,